Terrapower, LLC

Terrapower Isotopes, LLC

Ken Czerwinski

Joshua C Walter

Bassem S El-Dasher

William M Kerlin

Robert C Petroski

Kevin J Kramer

Anselmo T Cisneros, Jr

Jeffery F Latkowski

Brian C Kelleher

Aaron J Unger

Anselmo T Cisneros

Jesse R Cheatham, Iii

Jon David McWhirter

Charles Gregory Freeman

Christopher J Johns

Ryan Abbott

Mark A Havstad

Daniel Flowers

Christopher Dunckley

Christopher P Dunckley

Jon D Mcwhirter

Jesse R Cheatham

Dan Flowers

Ryan Jr Abbot

Iii Cheatham Jesse R

Jr Cisneros Anselmo T

Kevin Kramer

Jesse R Iii Cheatham

Jeffrey F Latkowski

This disclosure describes methods for manufacturing a radioisotope of actinium from an irradiated source material that includes thorium. The method includes storing the source material in a vessel to allow at least some of the source material to decay into actinium. The containment vessel is then injected with supercritical carbon dioxide and a ligand to form a metal complex of actinium. The actinium complex is then removed from the vessel without substantially removing any of the thorium from the vessel.

Separation of actinium from an irradiated source material including thorium

An anti-proliferation technique is disclosed to reduce the likelihood of nuclear proliferation due to the use fissionable fuel salts. The technique includes doping the fuel salt with one or more elements (referred to herein as activation dopants) that, upon exposure to neutrons such as would occur in the fuel salt when a reactor is in operation, undergo a nuclear reaction to, directly or indirectly, form highly active 'protecting isotopes' (of the same element as the activation dopant or a different element). A sufficient mass of activation dopants is used so that the Figure of Merit (FOM) of the fuel salt is decreased to below 1.0 within some target number of days of fission. This allows the FOM of the fuel salt to be controlled so that the fuel becomes too dangerous to handle before to the creation of a significant amount of weaponizable isotopes.

Anti-proliferation safeguards for nuclear fuel salts

Targetry coupled separation refers to enhancing the production of a predetermined radiation product through the selection of a target (including selection of the target material and the material's physical structure) and separation chemistry in order to optimize the recovery of the predetermined radiation product. This disclosure describes systems and methods for creating (through irradiation) and removing one or more desired radioisotopes from a target and further describes systems and methods that allow the same target to undergo multiple irradiations and separation operations without damage to the target. In contrast with the prior art that requires complete dissolution or destruction of a target before recovery of any irradiation products, the repeated reuse of the same physical target allowed by targetry coupled separation represents a significant increase in efficiency and decrease in cost over the prior art.

Targetry coupled separations

This disclosure describes systems and methods for synthesizing UClfrom UCl. These systems and methods may also be used to directly synthesize binary and ternary embodiments of uranium salts of chloride usable as nuclear fuel in certain molten salt reactor designs. The systems and methods described herein are capable of synthesizing any desired uranium chloride fuel salt that is a combination of UCl, UCland one or more non-fissile chloride compounds, such as NaCl. In particular, the systems and methods described herein are capable of synthesizing any UCl&#x2014;UCl&#x2014;NaCl or UCl&#x2014;NaCl fuel salt composition from UCl&#x2014;NaCl.

Electro-synthesis of uranium chloride fuel salts

Configurations of molten fuel salt reactors are described that utilize neutron-reflecting coolants or a combination of primary salt coolants and secondary neutron-reflecting coolants. Further configurations are described that circulate liquid neutron-reflecting material around an reactor core to control the neutronics of the reactor. Furthermore, configurations which use the circulating neutron-reflecting material to actively cool the containment vessel are also described.

Molten fuel nuclear reactor with neutron reflecting coolant

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Seattle, WA, United States of America

Ken Czerwinski